Maureen Dowd Vs. John McCain Vs. Right Wing News

by John Hawkins | December 28, 2009 7:32 am

While I was away, there was one particular piece that really caught my eye and surprisingly, it was by the most tedious, overrated columnist in America: Maureen Dowd. Ok, you got me — Paul Krugman is actually the most tedious, overrated columnist in America, but Modo is definitely top 5.

Anyway, it was a bit strange that this column caught my attention because it featured Modo kvetching about John McCain, who generally gets on my nerves. Well, let me just give you a little taste[1] and then I’ll explain my beef:

John McCain is no longer the media’s delight and his party’s burr, bucking convention with infectious relish.

The man used to be such a constructive independent that some of his Republican Senate colleagues called him a traitor. Now he’s such a predictable obstructionist that he’s in the just-say-no vanguard with the same conservatives who used to despise him.

…Watching him, one can only wonder: Is McCain betraying his best self? Who is the real McCain?

Even some of McCain’s former aides are disturbed by the 73-year-old’s hostile, vindictive, sarcastic persona – a far cry from The Honorable Man portrait so lovingly pumped up in books by his former aide and co-writer Mark Salter.

After he lost to W. in a nasty primary battle in 2000, McCain delighted in poking at the new Republican president. But he was a trenchant critic of W.’s budget-busting tax cuts and other policies because his objections were consistent and honestly felt. (Or so we thought.)

Now he delights in attacking another man he ran against and lost to: a new Democratic president who had once hoped, based on McCain’s past positions, that his former Republican rival might be of help in such areas as the economy, national security, immigration and climate change.

First off, it’s not as if John McCain became “hostile, vindictive, (and) sarcastic” overnight — even Modo admits that he loved taking shots at Bush. But, you never heard any complaints from the mainstream media about that, did you? Ever notice that guys like McCain, Lindsey Graham, and Arlen Specter are always “maverick’s,” “independent,” and men who put “principle above party,” but when say Joe Lieberman or Bart Stupak get in their party’s way, they’re jerks?

Setting that aside, why shouldn’t John McCain be a little bitter? Here’s a guy who spent 8 years kicking conservatives in the behind — and we despised him for it. Although the Right generally supported McCain, we did so reluctantly. What did McCain get for selling us out? The mainstream media spent years talking him up. According to the MSM, McCain was the prototype of what a Republican should be like. He was honorable, a maverick, a statesman — until he ran for President. Then the “prototype” turned into just another GOP snake in the eyes of the media. The kid gloves treatment he was getting from the media? That ended and instead, he got the “Republican” treatment just like the rest of the GOP. That’s part of the reason why the skewed media coverage in 2008 was so noticeable. Not only did the MSM give Barack Obama the most favorable coverage a politician could possibly get without owning the ink stained wretches writing it, the MSM gave him those sloppy, wet kisses while savaging a guy they had spent years building up.

Then, since Obama has been elected, he has broken promise after campaign promise, completely abandoned the bipartisanship he campaigned on, and it turns out that almost every criticism McCain made of Obama during the campaign turned out to be spot on. So, why should McCain do Obama any favors? Why should he continue to curry favor with the same MSM jackals who buried a knife in his back over and over during 2008?

You know what would really be interesting? If someone like Maureen Dowd had the self-awareness and intellectual honesty to take a real look at how the same “unbiased” media that built McCain up immediately turned on him once he got in the way of their real objective: electing Democrats.

PS: I have no doubt that McCain is being heavily influenced by the fact that he is up for reelection in 2010 and JD Hayworth is capable of beating him in a primary. All I can say is run JD, run!

Endnotes:
  1. give you a little taste: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/23/opinion/23dowd.html?_r=4

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